This interface, running on the iPhone itself, has the capacity to set alerts that would allow the phone to react when a signal had exceeded or dropped below a pre-set level. This could be a situation in which the strength of a GPS signal has dropped below the receivable threshold, identifying a ‘GPS shadow’. Alternately, it could alert the user to the availability of cellular, wireless internet or GPS signal in a place where they are typically less available.

The program can log data and records the relationship between physical and signal space. This allows for ‘mapping’ of the signal space and overlaying it on the standard map function of the phone.

Finally, this interface also offers a screen and graphic which can analyse the signals being received by the device in real time. As there is little information to be communicated apart from the presence, power, and potentially the direction of the signals, this information is represented by abstract fields and densities using colour to indicate the type of signal depicted.

This display would allow the user to develop an awareness of the signals and their strength, promoting an awareness of how they relate to the physical environment. The intent is that, through this kind of exploration, the user may better understand the way phone is connected to both the physical environment and the signal space that it participates in.

Below are two flow diagrams for the interface design.

• User Interface Flowchart
• Alert Response Flowchart

The premise is that, by encouraging the development of  cognitive maps of the issues surrounding products in our every-day lives, we may elicit a greater engagement with them. Three core theoretical concepts, including principles used in the design of spatial navigation systems, are identified that may help achieve this.

Foucault’s concept of the heterotopia was used to define latent conceptual spaces surrounding the products, such as the space of production, post-consumer waste, or the supporting corporation. The Lacanian ‘Objet Petit a’ is employed to provide an impetus for an exploratory journey itself.  Finally, way-finding techniques for encouraging the development of cognitive maps are employed to encourage an understanding of the connections within these spaces and relationship with the consumer object itself.

The full text for Critical Wayfinding can be downloaded here.

This project led to several design explorations, some of which are discussed in greater detail in their own articles:

• Hertzian Wayfinding
• iPhone Deconstruction
• Hertzian Wayfinding Interface Design

This product provides the user with the ability to transform an iPhone into a spectrum analyzer. This offers the new potential to explore the Hertzian signal space that surrounds and supports the original device. Doing so illuminates the unique and previously invisible qualities of this space and makes visible the ways in which it intersects with and impacts our physical space.

This product takes the form of a sleeve that fits neatly over the iPhone, connecting to the data port on the bottom of the device. It is constructed of a clear film polymer and a more rigid resin formed through double shot injection molding. The electronic component, responsible for sweeping across RF bands and transferring data to the iPhone itself is imbedded on the back of the back of the sleeve, as is a fractal antenna.

The user attaches the product to the phone and engages it by swiping a finger across the raised ridge on the back of the device. Having downloaded the appropriate software, the user would then be asked if they would like to begin the signal visualization program.

More information about the interface design can be found here.

Information on the Critical Wayfinding project and the full text can be found here.

These are not maps in any conventional sense, but rather diagramatic representations of the interconnected space of technology, capital, instrumental value, exchange value, social and environmental impact that surround the device. The first diagram focuses primarily on the physical device, and the existence of the device as an object in our world. The second examines the placement of the device with respect to the individual and society.

Larger, scaleable versions:

• iPhone Taxonomy
• Heideggarian Analysis

Userful is a computer and technology company which provides multiple-user computing environments with a minimum amount of equipment. Their flagship product is a system which allows up to ten users to independently use a single computer simultaniously.

In 2005, we were commissioned to design a number of public internet kiosk concepts which would showcase this technology.

We provided two solutions which highlight the use of a single CPU to serve multiple workstations. Economy, a minimum impact on the public space and the ability to easily transport the kiosks between sites were seen as important secondary considerations.

Sproose responds to the need for complete sensory protection while providing the user with a greater field of vision.  A tinted plastic visor reduces the vertical obstruction to the peripheral vision inherent in previous helmet designs, while the clear plastic face shield allows for an unobstructed view of the user’s surroundings.

Vision and hearing protection has been integrated into the helmet design to reduce the number of catch points while travelling through heavily wooded areas.  Significant space has been provided in front and behind the head to encourage air-flow.

This established the basis for a device which simultaneiously provides a dangerous, adrenaline filled ride while allowing the user to slip effortlessly through the interstitial spaces of the city left by those using out-moded technology.

The device features on-board navigation, gyroscopic stabilization, tweel airless tires and an integrated stereo system.  To remain consistent with futurist ideologies, ergonomic sizing for the device was calculated based on the 98th percentile male.

Basic controls are similar to those of a windsurfer — leaning left or right will steer the device in that direction, while tipping the cross-bar forward or back will slow or accelerate the device respectively.

Polvo was created to bring the ceremony of coffee brewing to this setting.  The form allows the complete vacuum brewing process to be seen as a performance.

A system was developed that would facilitate this, including a Point-of-Sale interface for the bar, a real-time display of drink prices to be displayed on monitors around the venue, and a numerical model which would allow individual sales to affect the prices of all stocks in the system to loosely mimic the behaviour of a real stock exchange.

Prices for individual drinks rise if they are high in popularity, and fall if few sales are made.  The market will ‘crash’ if drink prices become over-inflated, and all prices return to their lowest value.

Using this system in a party context provided a great deal of entertainment, but also elicited unique behaviour from the attendees. Undesirable beverages were frequently purchased simply because they were inexpensive, and a ‘crash’ would result in a dangerous collective rush to the bar.

**Party photos by Eric Au

Crit-Its provide a immediate and harmless way of drawing attention to an aspect of the design which may have been more carefully considered in hopes of raising awareness about issues such as kerning, rivering and the use of cliche.